I can recall quite vividly when the nine of us met for the first time.
We were told to go down to sign in under the name of Max Peck.
And it turned out that all nine of us signed in under the name of Max Peck.
Then there was this young fellow that I said--you know, we introduced
each other, and he was a fellow by the name of Neil Armstrong. And I said,
"Well, were you in the--are you in the Navy or in the Air Force?"
He says, "No, I work for NASA." And I thought, "Uh-oh. Boy, we
got a ringer here. It's going to be a tough
battle to get a flight with Neil aboard."
But, he turned out to be a team player, a real great guy,
and as we know from, you know, the history of what went on after that.
After people had looked up for tens of thousands of years
and wondered what was up there, Neil was the first person to ever
make a footprint on some place other than Earth.
I told Neil once that I'm not a very jealous person, but for
him I'll make an exception on that one. That first
step on the Moon was really something.
He always had car troubles. And he drove out
one time in one of his cars and it quit working out at work,
and so we borrowed a tow rope from the maintenance people.
And I hooked it up to my station wagon and up to his car, and
I towed him into Lancaster at about 70 miles an hour. I could
see him shaking his fist at me in the window.
With Apollo 10, we went to the Moon too. I liked to tell Neil and
always did remind him that Apollo 10, we painted the white line in
the sky so he wouldn't get lost, so all he'd have to do is worry
about that little thing about landing.
I got to see him at the Congressional gold medal ceremony back in
November. We got him to a restaurant and he spent time with General
Stafford, Gene Cernan, the Collins, and they got to laugh and joke.
I mean, I was sitting out in the car waiting for
him so I could get him back to the hotel.
And I had to finally go in there, because I saw the restaurant
closing down and they were all in there just laughing in there.
I had to go in there and put my hands on my hips and say, "Okay,
fellows, it's time to go," you know? And Neil came out and he said,
"Are we going to dance out here in the street?" And I said, "No,
we're not going to dance in the street. Tawana got to go to bed."
Well, you always came away from a conversation with Neil thinking
that he wants you to be the important person, not himself, in this
encounter. And so, yeah, he was a delight to talk to.
Everybody liked Neil.
He was quiet. He was a man of many talents. He was also a good friend.
I'll always think of Neil, though, as a friend.
And it's just too bad he's gone.
But, he looked at himself as being a--as being sort of out on
the tip of the spear, if you will. And there were just a lot
of--thousands of people that were designers and engineers and
people who made it possible for him to be out there doing what
he did. And no one can take away anything from that, but he
saw himself as the results of a--the work of a great team of people.
Neil was sincere. He always, always felt and said that, you
know, it's not about me. It's about those other 500,000 people
who made it possible for me to do what we did, what he did.
You know, he always considered himself the tip of the arrow,
and the strength of the bow was the American people who made
it possible for him to do what he did.
I often use Neil as a guide when things are getting a little
bit crazy and I think, okay, we got to stick to the science.
We got to stick to the engineering, that's the most
important, and try and avoid the hype.
And Neil was very good at avoiding the hype. You know, he was
very much the straight shooter. You know, let's get the job done.
And he carried that into his professional life and, as far as,
you know, we could see from the outside, his personal life.
It never was about him. He--and I don't think "I" was even in
his vocabulary. It was about the team, the mission, the job
that had to be done. And don't focus the attention on me.
Focus it on the product and the end accomplishments
that you want to get out of this activity.
And it's sort of the old, "As long as everybody pulls on
the rope in the same direction, you know, you can move
mountains." He was that kind of guy.
Look at the Apollo 11 mission patch. He was the commander
of that mission. And as it went back then, the astronauts
designed their mission emblem and there was one for every mission.
That particular mission patch, look at it closely. There's
no astronaut names on it. Why is there no astronaut names
on it? Well, the word at the time was because the commander
of the mission, who has 51 percent of the vote of what goes
on the patch, didn't want the astronauts to get credit for
our country being the first to land on the Moon. He wanted
our nation to get credit for it, so no names on the patch.
There's the eagle there, of course, representing the strength
of our country. But, the eagle is not carrying arrows in the
form of arrogance or military. It's carrying an olive branch
for peace. And to me, that kind of represents the personality of Neil.
In life, it seems like when we lose something, God has a way of
replacing it with something. And while there is no comparison
whatsoever between Curiosity and Neil Armstrong, it is a second
wave of explorers beyond low Earth orbit.
And so, it did worry me that, you know, here is this new explorer
and I sure hope it's not replacing, you know, the icon. So--.
--He just wanted to know that other kids could be inspired not
just only by his accomplishments, but by the accomplishments of
a country. The impossible is possible. All you got to do is go out and do it.
I'm Neil Armstrong. I was the first human being on another
"planet" in this universe. If I can do it, why can't you do
it? Now, how is an 18 year old, a 16 year old, a 25 year
old going to argue with Neil Armstrong?
He wanted to inspire these young people to dream. And his desire
was to inspire these dreamers to dream on, to take us back again
where no man has been before. I think if--Neil would certainly
find peace within himself to know, and I think he did, to know
that he indeed inspired this generation.
I could see it in their eyes. I could see it in their hearts.
By standing in front of these kids and saying, "Hi, I'm Neil
Armstrong," bingo, there's nothing they can't do.
Well, Neil Armstrong and the early astronauts were really the
pioneers of exploration that, for the first time, all
of us could see it as it was happening.
When I think of something like Lewis and Clark, you took
weeks to hear about what happened with exploration. But,
for this generation of explorers, we could experience it and
we could see ourselves doing things that no one had ever done before.
And I was eight years old watching Neil and Buzz walk on that--the
Moon the first time. And it did seem to me at that point that I
could do anything. And I'm not sure, if they hadn't done it,
I would have grown up thinking that.
I hope in some way that who he really was can be captured for
people so that future generations could profit from him. Because
if we had a role model, Neil was one of our best role models.
Whether it was going into space or being an engineer
or being a successful businessman or anything like that, then his
approach of being quiet and unassuming but accomplishing things,
I think that is something of his legacy that young people would appreciate.
We all lost a piece of ourselves today, all of us who consider ourselves explorers.
I've often wondered if, during these passing years, when Neil
looked up at the beautiful Moon, he thought,
"Um-hmm. Been there, done that."
I believe God sent Neil here to do what he needed to do.
And once his assignment was up, then God called him back home.
And so, I'm really thankful and glad for that.